Episode

Planet Money

NPR

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The economy, explained, with stories and surprises. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, "Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy." Now imagine that's actually a fun evening. That's what we're going for at <em>Planet Money</em>. People seem to like it.

#83 Planet Money: Too Much Information

Doctors know plenty about you and your ailments, but what do you know about them?. Robert Krughoff, of Consumer Checkbook, has a new website, Patient Central, that uses detailed survey information obtained by actual patients to measure doctor performance. Sometimes a little bit of information can be too much. Naked Economist Charlie Wheelan says knowing our genetic makeup is good for us but bad for the insurance industry. Wheelan argues that as soon as our insurance pool is "corrupted" by this information, healthy people will begin to opt out and people likely to get sick forced to opt in at higher rates.